Explaining the mechanism of the effect of green washing behavior on the green purchase intention of consumers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Businesses are utilizing greenwashing to beat their rivals along with the growth of green markets. The goal of the current study was to investigate the practice of greenwashing and explain how it affects consumers intentions to purchase environmentally friendly products. The statistical population of this study includes people who bought environmentally friendly food goods in Iran. Due to the statistical population s infinity, Cochran s relationship was used to obtain a sample size of 384, and ultimately 276 valid questionnaires were retrieved by accessible sampling. Then, the data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method with the help of SmartPLS. The results demonstrated that greenwashing has a detrimental and considerable impact on Iranian consumers green purchase intention for environmentally friendly food products. Additionally, the association between greenwashing and intention to make a green purchase was validated, with green word-of-mouth and green skepticism serving as mediators. Because greenwashing behavior has not been taken into account in domestic studies in Iran, the findings of this study provide the first theoretical and practical consequences for managers in the food business.